Smartphones and other mobile devices are being used in new ways to streamline interactions between consumers and merchants. Methods of providing advertisements, coupons, payment transactions, and other interactions are changing quickly as mobile device technology improves.
Mobile device users have additionally used the devices to help reduce wait times at merchants. For example, a user can call ahead to a restaurant and place an order or call a pharmacy to prepare a prescription.
However, many aspects of the call-ahead process are imprecise and impractical. One problem with a traditional call-ahead process is that a merchant may be hesitant to invest inventory and labor into an order only to have the customer abandon the order and not show up. Some products produced by a merchant may be wasted if the customer does not arrive at the merchant or in some other manner pay for the order.
Another problem is that the customer must estimate a time of arrival. The merchant does not have any manner of adjusting the order based on changes in the customer arrival time. If a customer is late or misjudged an arrival time, the shelf life of the order may have expired. For example, a customer that arrives 30 minutes late for a pizza order may demand a fresher pizza, and the merchant may be forced to dispose of the first pizza.
Another problem may be that the merchant must start different components of the order at different times based on the customer's estimated arrival. Many merchants that prepare items to order may not have a system for calculating component start times.
Customers and merchants would be desirous of a system that could provide a system that allows the customer and the merchant to better coordinate orders and arrivals.